Trump’s Pivot on Afghanistan Follows Bleak Battlefield Reports

In the run-up to President Trump’s Monday night announcement of a stepped-up military effort to stabilize Afghanistan came several inspector general reports that paint a bleak picture of stalled progress by U.S. and Afghan warfighters in defeating the Taliban. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ comment to Congress in June that “we are not winning in Afghanistan” figures predominantly in the ninth quarterly report to Congress on Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, prepared jointly by the inspectors general for the Defense Department (Glenn Fine, acting), State Department (Steve Linick) and U.S. Agency for International Development (Ann Calvares Barr).